I've been diagnosed with Asperger's before. It's on the very outer edge of autism, a high functioning autism.

I've only had a few of the problems you described, and it wasn't because I think more simply. It's because I think way too much, analyzing the world
around me in order to act accordingly. My social skills had to be very sharply honed before I stood a chance at having any kind of life. So I became
analytical of myself and the world around me. But just as with a computer that spots flaws in a program, or detects tiny mistakes in the script, I see
the various weaknesses and mistakes and flaws in the design of Homo Sapiens, as well as everything we do or make.

My logic, due to Asperger's (allegedly), is both a blessing and a curse, depending on how I use it and what results it gives me.

everyone who is knocking these people with this disorder need to stop, it is not right to place judgement or anything upon someone because of personal
beliefs, I know some of you are giving constructive criticism but please stop, All this person is tryin to do is reach out and ask for help, and it
appears to me that is the last thing anyone wants to do. Just my .02 cents

I check most of the boxes for Aspergers but have not been diagnosed. I have difficulty in viewing it as an ailment or even a syndrome.Aspies that I
have met have always struck me as people who operate on a purer form of logic than "ordinary" counterparts.

Most people's logic is handed down and adjusted to work on top off all the illogical things we do or have done as a society.We try to establish a
logical foothold in a myre of folly.I, and I suspect most Aspies, develop a form of logic that attempts to eliminate or disregard many of society's
illogical operations

For example I do not understand the celebration of birthdays.To me it is like throwing a party every time your truck does another 10k miles.Even the
sending of cards and utterance of "happy birthday" completely baffle me.

Likewise flashy clothes and dressing up and accessorising.I only wear what is practical and my brother helps me pick practical stuff that won't make
me look like a weirdo.

For me these are potholes in life's road, that I must avoid as I can base nothing concrete on them or derive any truth from them.

This is why, I believe, that Aspies tend to develop numeric obsessions or preoccupation with serials and patterns. I think the tendency is to latch
onto something that is logical, at least within it's own context. Granted, to the casual observer, a person who habitually records license plates or
whatever, can seem eccentric and illogical, but within the confines of the subject there is logic and moreover, one that is simple and
controllable.

For me it was the sport of rugby.I became obsessed by the age of 4 from watching it on TV. For some reason it made sense to me like nothing else
could. None of my family or friends were into it.It became a domain where as a player I could interact with people very different from me in a
codified logical theatre and as a spectator I learned how to be amongst a crowd. I will say however that I did recoil quite a bit from some of the
"social" antics that go on after a game.On the whole the obsession proved beneficial as it made me more socially savvy even if much of my social
confidence to this day is a facade.It also emboldened me to stand up to bullies.

I could have just as easily fallen for trainspotting and spent my entire life getting bullied and sneered at and unfortunately a lot of kids like me
find joy in a hobby or sport that is bizzarre and often exclusive to them or people entirely similar to them.While it gives them security it does
nothing to help them understand the messed up world around them.

My worry with the perception of Aspergers as a syndrome is that it could serve to stigmatise further a group of people who I feel are simply
different, and for the better.I wonder what the world might be like if everyone had Aspergers. It might just be a nicer place,

Also, Aspergers may become the shelter for people trying to mask serious psyhchological disorders. It is illegal to label anyone under the age of 18 a
psychopath. i wonder how many young psychopaths are getting rubber stamped for Aspergers and sent on their way when they need to be closely
monitored.

Perhaps "ordinary" people, ie the majority need to broaden their minds to the fact that others can have an entirely perception of life without
needing to be branded with a label that suggests inferiority. There is little ability and/or will amongst the ordinary people to at least try and meet
at the halfway mark.Aspies try to fathom your ways and want to just fit in and not always feel like spare wheel. They have to, in order to survive.
But the concensus don't have to make such an effort. much easier to just call them a retard and find someone normal

In a world gone mad,the sane will be a minority. Aspies might just be the sane ones.

Originally posted by R6A6W6
Hello to all,
I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome in 2006 when I was 36 years old and I am now 42. The so called experts usually say that getting a diagnosis
that late in life, is life changing and like a blessing. A lot of those that were diagnosed later in life have come out saying that they now
understand; why they were, the way they were, when they were younger. I can totally understand that part of it easily but as for a later diagnosis
being a blessing to me, I wish I could say that was true but its not.

I know that everyone with Aspergers has different symptoms of varying degrees but we all know that Aspergers people use their brains differently to
neurotypicals. I think we tend to think things more simply than people without the disorder do. Therefore when I am nearly always spending every
minute of my life around neurotypical people who don't have the same way of thinking as I do and I hardly ever see or speak to anyone like myself. It
makes me feel trapped, scared, overloaded, outnumbered and lost.

I simply find that being around people without the disorder is like everything is being made ten times more complicated than it has to be in my
reasoning. I still cannot feel happy about myself for having been diagnosed because I cannot celebrate the fact that I am different, others simply
don't understand that a party is no fun if you are all alone by yourself.

I grow more and more tired every day because of having to try and fit in all the time, when inside I am just dying to burst out and be me. I fear if I
do try to be me and follow my heart that I will just have to break free from all of the neurotypicals in my life around me, which include my wife and
my family as well. I am scared because I don't really belong with any of them, but I do have some degree of emotional attachment to them. So for me
to break free from them would cause even more pain and I am completely torn and in emotional agony all the time.

Once again I know that everyone is different, I am just putting forward the way I feel about having the disorder in my life. If anyone else has had a
later diagnosis and is turning middle ageish, could you please tell me how you feel as this point in your life.

I GOT NEWS FOR YOU...

This might come as a shock to you...

But you've been lied to!!! The truth is your a perfectly fine adult in perfect health. You're just like everyone else. Everyone lives with fears,
insecurities, confusion and other issues that plague everyone on the planet. It's part of being human. You're NO DIFFERENT than anyone else.

So here's my advice to you. Stop believing there lie. Get off any pills there trying to get you hooked on. And tell them to go foock themselves.
They're a bunch of liars. They'll say anything to get you to believe them and then anything else to get you on some pills you don't need. Be
careful my friend. Again your fine, you've just been lied to that's all.

Just wanted to thank you for saying what I'd have said had I not been so late in the thread

All these labels are just an excuse for big pharma AND to make us all the same and easier to manage.

That is very unfortunate and I am sorry to hear that. I agree with you in a sense, but you must also realize that no two cases of aspergers are the
same really. Some people may exhibit symptoms that other people do not, ect.

Thats why they call them "autism spectrum disorders" because their is a whole spectrum of issues like this, but with so much variability, its hard
to define them in the way the medical field prefers. Its not as clear as say, diagnosing a bacterial infection.

I really wish you could meet my neighbor and her daughter who has one of the most severe cases of autism i have ever seen. Yea shes deff faking and
just looking for attention.

over and over again.

Dont forget the motto here at ATS- "deny ignorance".

I dont deny there are genuine dissorders, I'm sorry if thats how I came across. However I dont think we can deny they try to label everyone with some
kind of dissorder. A few days ago I saw what doctors AND schools look for when they labe a child with ADHD/ADD etc and the symptoms listed could be
applied to ANY healthy child. I'll see if I can find it, I'll post it if I can.

"disorder" label is mere convenience for a circle society. rarely helpful. look at what happens to these people. they know they're wired different,
then get all emotional when a label encapsulates some of their behaviors. really is a million reasons it could come out like that, least of which
would be the cultural impressions.

why can't we just keep the good 'ole term"eccentric". Why must we encircles all the outskirts with yet more circles that aren't out there?

seems to justify acting odd. why can't you just accept that you're odd? what's the need to justify being as you are?

I've always been similar to you myself. I've always seen it like, other people are more willing to adapt themselves, give away and change parts of
themselves, just to conform to some etheric idea of a norm. Everything that I am is as a result of a lot of thought and effort and I just can't add
pieces in or takes pieces away willy nilly.

I think people with aspie tendencies are demonized and ostracized because they are immune to the glamour of government, the poetry of fallacious logic
and the almost sacrosanct level of power given to people enforcing corporate laws on private people. They cannot be manipulated into adopting a
societal programmed personality.Therefor, without intending to, they will continually question the system and expose the flaws with it, because no
matter the explanation or justification, to aspies, it will always seem wrong.

Rant,rant,hurry and get to the part where you say we are designed to supress lies naturally,we are truth finders and we destroy untruth and unnatural
structures by nature of our very ability to view the world in a 3D manner useing visual thoughts as the catalyst.

Say that we dont let emotions dictate a natural survival instinct out of ourselves as if it were an addictive drug,which it is.
We feel every bit of every emotion in every degree that anyone else does,we just cant let the emotional reaction be played like a marrionette,our
minds wont let it happen.

We are naturally tuned into pattern recognition from birth,we look for unnatural dynamics as sign posts of when things are wrong or will be wrong.

We dont require specifics to identify a wrong pattern or an unnatural or contrived one,this is a serious skill when you think about it,we are like
human lie detectors,seriously.

If we are nutured and are proud of our skills we can do neat stuff like get 100% on multiple choice exams and cheekily flip our papers over and
leave a message to the instructors showing the exact spot in the test questions where we discovered each answer on the paper itself,ha ha ha ha ha
ha.Because we are well aware that no question can possibly be asked without the answer already existing,as a result it is impossible to phrase a
question contextually without includeing some of the answer,the rest is just extrapolation,or figureing out the most natural alternative pattern and
going with your gut and feel.

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